Storm Warning: America's Earth Science · Episode 3 of 12 · 41 min
The Wet NASA: The Birth of NOAA (1970)
In 1970 three of America's oldest scientific agencies, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, were fused into NOAA and given a research arm whose job was to understand the whole environment. The Stratton Commission's 'wet NASA' vision was only partly realized, which made NOAA's research budget a tempting target.
Who's who
- Julius A. StrattonChaired the commission that urged a unified ocean-atmosphere agency
- Richard Nixon+15 more episodesPresident who proposed NOAA through Reorganization Plan No. 4
- Robert M. WhiteNOAA's first administrator
- Harris B. Stewart Jr.Founder and first director of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
- Lyndon B. Johnson+7 more episodesPresident who appointed the Stratton Commission in 1967
Where it happens
- Virginia Key, MiamiSite of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
- Ann Arbor, MichiganHome of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Timeline
- July 13, 1965ESSA created, merging the Weather Bureau and Coast and Geodetic Survey
- January 1969Stratton Commission delivers 'Our Nation and the Sea'
- July 9, 1970Nixon proposes NOAA through Reorganization Plan No. 4
- October 3, 1970NOAA established with Robert White as administrator
- 1973Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory opens
Still debated
No one can pin down who first coined 'wet NASA.' The independent cabinet-level agency the commission envisioned never materialized, and the fisheries transfer across departments met bureaucratic resistance.
Connected episodes in other series
Who Created Title IX? The Godmother and the CongresswomenTitle IX · Episode 2Also features Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon
How Oil Money Built the Shah's Secret PoliceTwo Parties, One Coup · Episode 4Also features Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon
The 1970 BargainNeither Snow Nor Rain · Episode 6Also features Richard Nixon
The Bully Pulpit and the 1968 Evisceration (1964–1994)The U.S. Public Health Service · Episode 8Also features Lyndon B. Johnson